REFERENCE: Vol. 134 No. 109

TITLE: CIVIL LIBERTIES ACT -- CONFERENCE REPORT

SPEAKER: Mr. BYRD; Mr. DOLE; Mr. GLENN; Mr. MATSUNAGA

TEXT: [*S10151] Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I submit a report of the committee of conference on H.R. 442 and ask for its immediate consideration.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The report will be stated.

The assistant clerk read as follows:

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 442) to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, having met, after full and free conference, have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses this report, signed by a majority of the conferees.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senate will proceed to the consideration of the conference report.

(The conference report will be printed in the House proceedings of the Record.)

Mr. GLENN. Mr. President, the conference report on H.R. 442, a bill to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, reflects a reasonable and well-thought out compromise between the Senate and House verisons of the bill. H.R. 422 was passed by the House in September, 1987, and S. 1009, the Senate version of the bill, which was reported from our Governmental Affairs Committee, was passed last April. There were several substantive differences between the two bills which have been resolved. On behalf of the Governmental Affairs Committee, I am glad to report to the Senate on that resolution.

First, the compromise bill includes restitution to the Aleuts who were relocated during World War II from their homes on the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands. This provision was included in the Senate version of the bill, but is contained in separate legislation that has not yet been passed by the House.

Second, the bill creates a Civil Liberties Education Fund authorized to be funded for $1.25 billion. From this fund, each individual of Japanese ancestry living on the date of enactment is eligible to receive payment of $20,000. The Senate version would have allowed such compensation to each internee who is living on the date of payment.

In addition, as a compromise, the conferees agreed that the payments of the vested rights of those eligible individuals who die after the date of enactment, but before they receive payment, are limited to three categories: First, a surviving spouse of 1 year, and if no surviving spouse, then second, equal shares to all children living at the time of payment, and if no surviving children, then three equal shares to parents living on date of payment. Under the compromise, if none of these three categories of heirs survive the eligible individual, then the compensation remains in the fund for allowable educational purposes.

Frankly, this was the most difficult issue for the conference committee to resolve. However, I feel that we have reached a compromise that manages to retain the essential thrust of both approaches. The sentiment underlying the Senate bill is that it is appropriate that compensation be made to those who actually suffered in the internment camps. The House approach recognizes the administrative problems for the Department of Justice, the agency responsible for locating and identifying eligible individuals, and the fundamental fairness of vesting the eligibility rights of those Japanese [*S10152] Americans who survive to see this bill become law.

The compromise bill accepts the House provision that the right to compensation should be vested at a specific point in time, but incorporates the Senate notion that compensation should only be paid to those most directly affected by internment. The compromise bill therefore limits the heirs who could claim under the vested rights to those most directly affected by the Government action -- the spouse, children, and parents of the internees. This makes sense as well because the compromise bill only authorizes appropriations to the fund up to $500 million in any given fiscal year. Because of this restriction, and the fact that the internee population is dying at a rate of almost 2,000 persons a year, it is very likely that some eligible individuals alive on the date of enactment will not survive to see their payment.

Now, some people might think that because the bill would allow payment to certain heirs of internees alive on the date of enactment, we ought to allow heirs of internees who died before the bill is enacted to also receive payment. I think we should not go down that road for several reasons. First, from a simply practical point of view, it will be nearly impossible for the Justice Department track down the heirs of all internees who have died throughout this world from 1946 on.

Second, and more importantly, the payment o $20,000 to those interned is in many ways symbolic -- it cannot possibly be an exact monetary accounting for the trauma and disclocation suffered by these Japanese Americans. It is an important element of our recognition of responsibility for this unnecessary Government action. However, the establishment of a right to payment, in and of itself, is not the sole purpose of this legislation. In formally acknowledging and apologizing for this action, we are fulfilling our obligation to those internees who have already died. By allowing eligibility for payment to be vested at the time of enactment in recognition that the mechanics of payment may not occur quickly enough, and that there may be insufficient funds appropriated to make payments to all internees in the first year, we are fulfilling our responsibility to those who have survived to see this bill enacted into law.

I would add that the choice between the Senate and House versions on this issue was not affected by budgetary considerations. Once the funds are appropriated to the Civil Liberties Education Fund, they remain available for distribution for individual compensation or educational purposes for a 10-year period. Under no circumstances would those funds be returned to the U.S. Treasury during that period.

Mr. MATSUNAGA. Mr. President, I rise to urge approval of the conference report on H.R. 442, the Civil Liberties Act. A similar bill, S. 1009, which I had introduced with 75 cosponsors, passed the Senate on April 20, 1988. After its passage, the Senate considered the House bill, H.R. 442, amended it by striking all after the enacting language and inserting in lieu thereof language of S. 1009, as amended and passed by the Senate. H.R. 442, as amended, was sent back to the House, which asked for a conference.

The bill, as agreed to by the conferees, would implement the recommendations of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, authorizing an apology on behalf of the Nation to American citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who were relocated and interned by the U.S. Government during World War II. It further authorizes the payment of token compensation to approximately 60,000 surviving former internees, and the establishment of a Civil Liberties Education Fund to conduct research and to educate the American public about this and other egregious violations of civil liberties.

The conference committee, composed of members of the House Judiciary Committee and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, agreed to accept the Senate amendment which provides token compensation of $12,000 to about 450 surviving wartime evacuees from the Aleutian and Pribiloff Islands in Alaska. The Aleutian and Pribiloff Islanders, who are Native Americans, were evacuated from their remote island villages because of the threat of enemy attack. Relocated to southeastern Alaska, they were housed under deplorable conditions in abandoned canneries and mines. Because of a lack of adequate food, clothing, and medical care, 10 percent of them died. Upon returning to their homes near the end of the war, they discovered that their homes and public buildings had in many cases been destroyed by the American forces which occupied the islands, and that unexploded ordnance and other wartime debris had been left behind. The Senate-passed bill and the conference report also provide for clearance of such debris and, where appropriate, for the repair and reconstruction of community property.

The House conferees also accepted a Senate amendment offered during floor consideration of S. 1009 by the senior Senator from North Carolina [Mr. Helms] which provides that nothing in the act shall be construed as recognition of any claim of Mexico, any other cournty, or any Indian tribe -- except Aleuts -- to any territory or other property of the United States, nor as providing any basis for compensation in connection with any such claim.

The House did not formally accept the findings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians as the Senate did, but the House-passed bill contained a "Statement of the Congress" recognizing the grave injustice committed against American citizens and permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry and extending an apology on behalf of the Nation. The Senate conferees receded and accepted the House-passed language with amendments which added a statement relative to Aleutian and Pribilof Islanders and which emphasized the fact that no documented acts of sabotage or espionage by Americans or permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry were found by the Commission.

The conferees adopted a House-passed provision which would spread over a 10-year period the payments to Americans of Japanese ancestry who were interned, dropping a 5-year payment plan contained in the Senate-passed bill. I might add, Mr. President, that during the early stages of the conference on H.R. 442, the White House also expressed its support for a 10-year payment period.

Both House- and Senate-passed bills contained language which would extinguish any further claims against the U.S. Government stemming from the relocation and internment of Japanese Americans. The conferees adopted the House language which specifically prohibits a former internee from accepting both court-awarded damages and the $20,000 settlement authorized by H.R. 442. A former internee would have up to 18 months to decide whether or not to accept the payment, after being notified by the Federal Government that funds were available to pay his or her $20,000 settlement.

The disagreement between the House and Senate which proved most difficult to resolve concerned a difference in the definition of individuals who would be eligible for the $20,000 payments. The House bill language provided that any former internee living on the date of enactment of the bill was an "eligible individual", and interpreted this provision to mean that if an eligible beneficiary died before funds became available to make the compensatory payments, his or her estate could receive the payment. By contrast, the Senate-passed bill defined "eligible individual" as one who was living on the date of payment. The difference is significant because many former internees are now elderly, because they have been waiting many years for this official, tangible recognition of the injustice which was done to them, and because the conferees had agreed to spread the payments out over a 10-year period, rather than the shorter period, of 5 years as proposed by the Senate. The conferees spent a considerable amount of time attempting to resolve this difference. Eventually, they agreed on what I believe is a very workable compromise. The Senate conferees agreed to accept the House language with an amendment which provides that in the event of the death of an eligible beneficiary [*S10153] after enactment of the bill but before payment is made, the individual's surviving spouse, children, or parents would be eligible to receive the $20,000 compensatory payment.

Finally, Mr. President, the Senate accepted the House authorization of $1.25 billion -- instead of the Senate's $1.3 billion -- for the portions of the bill relating to Japanese-Americans who were interned during World War II.

It is most gratifying to me personally to see this long battle for personal justice come to an end at last. The many questions which Americans of Japanese ancestry had about the wartime relocation and internment have been largely answered as a result of the study conducted by the distinguished nine-member Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment and the subsequent series of congressional hearings on redress bills introduced in the 98th, 99th, and 100th Congresses. I personally believe that the process has been an educational one, and that all Americans, can take great pride in the fact that this long overdue legislation will have set right a most grievous wrong and removed a longstanding blot on our great Constitution, as we commemorate its 200th anniversary. The compromise reached by the conferees is a good one and deserves the full support of the Senate. I hope that it will be speedily passed by the Senate and House and signed into law by the President.

I wish to thank my fellow conferees for their dedication to this task, the distinguished chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee [Mr. Glenn], the ranking member of that committee [Mr. Roth], the chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Services, Post Office and Civil Service [Mr. Pryor], and the ranking member of the subcommittee [Mr. Stevens] who has been a principal cosponsor and staunch supporter of the legislation from the very beginning. I also thank the majority and minority leaders for their support in arranging timely consideration of my bill, S. 1009, the House bill, H.R. 442, and this conference report.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the conference report.

The conference report was agreed to.

Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the conference report was agreed to.

Mr. DOLE. I move to lay that motion on the table.